French Parnassus

7/24/2009

Some observations upon 'The French Parnassus' - II

'Mount Parnassus', arch set at the Fontaine Saint-Gervais in occasionof the entry of Louis XIV and Maria Teresa of Austria in Paris,and celebrating their wedding, 1660.

The theme of the Parnassus was frequently used in the arts as a metaphor for poetry and inspiration.The word ''Parnassus" in the title of a book was almost a synonym for "collection of poems", like in Le Parnasse satyrique (1622) where Théophile de Viaud collected the best of licentious poems of his time, or Le Parnasse divin (1653) by Monsieur de Clermont, a priest from Toulouse - a strange collection of philosophical and christian poetries, with love sonnets dedicated to Madame de Marnac, a Clarisse nun.